I recently shared an experiment we were launching at Collegewise, the Talent Tour of Duty, an 8-week program for our colleagues to help our Talent Department find new and better ways to find, recruit, hire, train, and engage the very best employees. We’d originally envisioned 8-10 people participating, a number we picked largely based on how many people might be interested (and even that was a guess). But we were astonished at both the quality and the quantity of the applications, so much so that we accepted 18 Collegewise employees into the program.

To be clear, none of these people actually work in our Talent Department. They hail from nearly every department in our company, from counseling to sales to finance to filmmaking. And they all have full-time jobs with full-time responsibilities. But they’ve all experienced what it’s like to be recruited and hired here. They’ve been through their own trainings. They’ve experienced their own joys and challenges as they’ve progressed through their jobs here. Who better to spot how we can improve the employee experience than the employees themselves?

Leaders often make the mistake of reserving the right to initiate change. But that puts enormous pressure on the leader and devalues the potential of the team. Great ideas are equal opportunity employers. Why limit the time spent observing, analyzing, and problem solving to a select few individuals? When you engage others to spot opportunities, to find solutions, and to innovate, you increase your collective potential for impact exponentially.

We’re so grateful to the Wisers who raised their hands for the Talent Department, and we can’t wait to see not only the ideas they present, but also the projects they ship. I’ll share our progress, and some of our projects, as we go. I hope our Talent Tour of Duty inspires others to tap into their own team’s potential.

Congratulations to our Talent Tour of Duty participants: Abby van Geldern, Frank Martinez, Jackie Muralla, Jen Turano, Jordan Kanarek, Katie Konrad Moore, Katie Sprague, Kellie Graham, Laura Dicas, Liz Pack, Lindsay O’Sullivan, Megan Carlier, Michael Banks, Nan Yuasa, Nicole Pilar, Nikayla Loy, Olivia Vail, and Tom Barry.